The monthly Minnesota MUFON meeting, the second-Saturday-of-the-month gathering of UFO aficionados in Minneapolis, is often the scene of fascinating topics and presentations. At the July meeting, we saw a recorded talk by Graham Hancock, presented at the recent X-Conference, put on by the Paradigm Research Group (PRG). I had previously thought that the goals of the PRG organization were primarily disclosure of government UFO secrets, a topic I am not heavily involved in. However, it turns out that at least some of the talks were on very different topics, such as abduction and parapsychology, and in this case, a possible relationship between the two.

The talk by Graham Hancock was on his book, Supernatural. This book explores the deep history of humanity, specifically in the realm of shamanism. He looks at the evolution of human thought and points out that, although modern humans have been around for roughly 150 thousand years, only in the last 30 thousand years or so have humans had modern symbolism, religious/spiritual thought and art/creativity. Thus, something appeared to have happened at that particular time in our prehistory, to spur us on this new path of cultural evolution.He points out many of the caves and rock art drawings dating back to earliest prehistory (60 to 20 thousand years ago) have lately been accepted as depictions of shamanic journeys. The caves were (and are) sacred sites - thought of as portals to another world. And in cave art,the drawings appear to depict exactly that - supernatural beings, portals into another world - and, what I find most interesting from a UFOlogical perspective, UFOs and Grays. The implication here seems to be that there was some sort of contact between humans and grays dating back into humanity's earliest prehistory.

Then Hancock takes a slightly different turn. While some authors (such as Erich Von Daniken) suggest that this implies a physical ET presence in human history, Hancock explores a different avenue; he looks into the nature of shamanic experiences. And what he concludes is fascinating indeed. Hancock explores the shamanic journey in more detail, noting many of the features of the experience. The most important of these is that the shaman is always in an altered state of consciousness during these experiences. He emphasizes that this is the core of shamanism; it not possible to be a shaman without leaving our normal beta-state awareness and venturing into the world of trance, hallucinogenic, or other mind-altered state. In most cases, in the indigenous world, this is done with some type of hallucinogenic drug. This can be magic mushrooms, Peyote, DMT, LSD, or any of a number of other drugs. This, Hancock stated, was taken in the shamanic world as being the fastest way to achieve this altered state of consciousness.

What Hancock centered on in his talk was DMT, described by Rick Strassman in his book DMT The Spirit Molecule. While also looking at other drugs, he focused on this particular one as being the most commonly used - primarily in South American indigenous societies. He then examined the rather universal experiences of shamans in many parts of the world, again focusing on South American practices. He noted a fascinating thing, that these experiences duplicate nearly exactly, those depicted in prehistoric cave art. Apparently, the shamanic experience is one of the oldest experiences in human history.

Next, since Hancock was presenting this to the International UFO Congress, he needed to tie this in with the UFO experience - which he did handsomely. He proceeded to compare the shamanic experience to that of the UFO abduction experience, as described by Mack, Hopkins, Jacobs, et al. And the result was again, amazing. The comparison went something like this: - In shamanic journeys, entities appear that closely resemble beings described in UFO abduction cases - In shamanic experiences, entities often initially appear as animals, while frequently, the initial screen memories of abductees are also of animals, frequently very similar to those described by shamans [CL Note: would need to more closely confirm this]. The beings then shape-shift into their "alien" form - Both the shaman and the abductee describe then being floated into the sky, usually in a beam of light, a ladder of light or similar. - Shamans describe being pierced, tortured, implanted with objects, and other things closely resembling the medical ordeals of abductees. - Nearly simultaneously with descriptions of tortures and ordeals, shamans describe receiving gifts from the spirits, primarily those of healing and other extraordinary powers. [CL note: This is the core of the "medicine man" ethos]. This is very close to the description of gifts, psychic emergence and awakening, and the paranormal fallout that abductees describe. - Shamans also describe sexual relationships between themselves and entities in the alternate realm, including having offspring in the other world. This is also a cornerstone of the UFO abduction narrative, the creation of hybrid children from sexual unions between abductees and aliens. - One of the biggest of the effects - also nearly identical between shamanic and UFOlogical narratives - is that of a sense of mission. Both the shaman and the abductee "know" that they are here for a purpose. - Missing time is the cornerstone of the abduction experience, and is also part of the shamanic lore. In prehistoric times and in modern indigenous cultures, the spirits are the abductors. Hancock also explored to some degree, the work of Jacques Vallee, in his book Passport to Magonia, where he explores the similarities between folklore and modern UFO abduction accounts. - In western medieval lore, faeries, elves and similar beings often abducted humans, mostly children. Accounts are somewhat similar to those of alien abduction. The changeling was sometimes the result of a human-faery union, or was a faery child left behind in place of the abducted human child, similar in many accounts to the hybrids of UFOlogical lore. - Like the UFOlogical aliens, faeries are said both to torture human captives, and to bestow gifts upon them, often part of the same experience.

The list could go on, but I think you get the idea. The UFO experience seems to have a vast array of similarities to the shamanic and folkloric experiences. So, are they the same? Let's look at some more characteristics of the UFO experience...

Abductees describe being psychically sensitive at an early age. They describe many other extraordinary experiences besides those related to UFOs. These include the ability to see spirits, communicate telepathically, have psychic visions, and many more. These include (almost incidentally) many UFO sightings throughout their lives. In short, they appear to be sensitive - ether as a byproduct, or as a cause - of their UFO experiences.

Hancock further stated that, while DMT is illegal, we all have a minuscule amount of it in our own endocrine systems. It is produced by the pineal gland - the location of the 6th or Ajna chakra, also known as the psychic or third eye. This appears to be the center of psychic function in the human being, and thus, its relationship to the shamanic journey seems to come full circle. Each of us has a little bit of shaman in them, by nature. Perhaps for some, the DMT quantity is greater than for others. This would be an interesting topic of study.

This is also in keeping with another topic of study, that of Stuart Hameroff, MD, a professor at the University of Arizona Center for Consciousness Studies in Tucson, AZ. Dr. Hameroff is an anesthesiologist, who became interested in the fundamental properties of anesthesia and consciousness - extending this to hallucinogens as well. He found that (simply put) the microtubule structure of the neurons (and all cells) within the brain have both quantum and classical behavior. The more “quantum” the behavior of the component proteins (tubulins), the more psychic and the more conscious the person becomes.

Conversely, the more classical the behavior, the more grounded and less conscious the person is. A balance between the two would seem to be necessary if we are to be conscious, sentient, creative beings and yet be able to function in the real world of moving cars, saber-toothed tigers and dishonest financiers.

Dr. Hameroff found that the primary role of all anesthetics appears to be to move the tubulins toward classical behavior, while the role of hallucinogens appears to move it toward quantum behavior. Thus, the shamanic experience, facilitated by hallucinogens could be thought of as "simply" that of a more quantum enabled tubulins within the shaman's brain allowing for a higher consciousness experience. While this is an oversimplification, it seems to capture the fundamental essence of the process.

So, does the awakened human being in our society - the sensitive or perceiver, the abductee, the psychic, simply have a more active pineal gland? Do they have more DMT in their system, resulting in more quantum behavior in their neuronal microstructures? It would be an interesting topic of study, indeed, to learn if there is a correlation between psychic sensitivity and the concentration of DMT in the human endocrine system. Similarly, it would be interesting to see if abductees a lso show similar concentrations of DMT (at various stages in their lives).

There are many more questions to be asked as a result of what I heard in Graham Hancock's lecture; we have only scratched the surface of this topic. Indeed, like any truly meaningful scientific insight, this one raises far more questions than it answers. It tells me once again, that the relationship between UFO encounters and other forms of extraordinary experience are deeply related. And the reality-bending nature of close encounters once again tells me that there is far more to the UFO/CE4 phenomenon than we even begin to understand. But maybe we have made a beginning. I believe that there is deep meaning in this connection - the link between DMT and other quantum - mind enhancers, human consciousness, and the extraordinary experience